The average property-owner in rich parts of the West Midlands has made the equivalent of nearly £7,000 a year since 1995 - after inflation - simply by owning a house or flat.

The figures emerged as a leading think-tank warned Britain’s wealth gap would be passed down the generations because the children of those with homes would be so much better off than the children of those without.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said more than half of those likely to secure an inheritance of £250,000 or more already had incomes in the top 20 per cent of the population.

And analysis of Land Registry figures shows that property-price inflation over the past two decades has been greatest in areas where houses were already most expensive.

In Solihull, the average property price in January 1995 was £69,826. That had rocketed to £267,137 by October 2016, the latest figures available.